As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Various types of information handling systems may be utilized to conduct teleconferences among a plurality of participants. During a teleconference, a participant may from time to time desire to mute sounds (e.g., ambient noise, private conversations with persons other than teleconference participants, etc.) incident upon a microphone of such participant's information handling system, to prevent such sounds from being transmitted to other teleconference participants, particularly when the participant is not actively intending to speak to teleconference participants.
In traditional approaches, a participant must typically manually manage the mute state of his or her microphone to avoid having the microphone in the wrong mode (e.g., unmuted when the microphone should be muted, and vice versa). Oftentimes, a participant will place the microphone in one mode, and forget which mode the microphone is in, producing unintended results.
For example, a participant may mute a microphone in a teleconference when he or she is not the active participant for a bulk of the teleconference. However, if such participant is suddenly required to speak, he or she may begin speaking while forgetting to unmute the microphone. Accordingly, a participant may speak for many seconds while muted before becoming aware or being reminded from other participants that he or she is muted. As another example, a user may forget that a microphone is unmuted, and undesired audio (e.g., excessive background noise, private conversations, etc.) may be transmitted to other participants.